Opinion: Brace for the Coming High Tide

President Obama has been inaugurated a second time. He is putting climate change solutions front and center during these next four years. Thank goodness.

A New York Times article ("How High Could the Tide Go?" Jan. 21 by Justin Gillis) presents important research by Maureen E. Raymo and fellow scientists searching for markers of previous climate changes that raised sea levels millions of years ago.

They found ancient shells along rock ridges miles above current sea level. These same rock ridges used to be underwater (See "Climate's future seen in fossils," The Sacramento Bee, Jan. 22.)

Oddly enough, I heard the story of fossil shells high above our current sea level years back, during my studies and through the travels of my scientist son, Associate Professor of Entomology Derek Sikes, curator of insects at the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks.

I first learned of shells high on mountainsides in my studies of Charles Darwin and his travels around the tip of South America. While Darwin was climbing cliffs, he found whole shells high up on the rocks where there were no birds. (Birds would have left broken bits of shells after eating shellfish.) The whole shells Darwin found were very old.

My son, Derek, had a similar experience. While still a graduate student, he took part in an expedition to collect beetles in the Dominican Republic. He also found whole seashells far up a dry hillsides, crumbling from what appeared to be an ancient and now mostly buried coral reef. Some of those shells are now on the bookshelf in my front room.

What is also important to consider is why the shells are high on the mountains. Now we know. Raymo and her team have found that the level of the ocean changes with the temperature of the planet. When it was much warmer in the past, the ocean was much higher than it is today. Shellfish lived along the edge of the ocean, as they do today.

Yes, once again sea levels are rising. The climate is continuing to shift. Our America has already experienced devastation from drought, hurricanes and tornadoes. Our country will see more as the climate continues to change.

We cannot do much to mitigate what Mother Nature contributes to climate change. But we certainly can do something about the pollution we, as individuals and as industries, contribute. We know that our use of gasoline, diesel, oil, and coal fouls the air we breathe. We know the risks -- asthma, cancer, heart disease -- to the health of our children and ourselves that these pollutants generate.

Although our president has put forth great effort toward addressing climate change, Mr. Obama still has an uphill fight ahead of him to protect our children, seniors and ourselves.

Hurricane Sandy and the Midwest disasters sharply remind us of the tasks we face. I think our president can be successful if you and I will work together to decrease air pollution.